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Lasses Jobs, History, a FRESA, BREXIT and Chickens Home to Roost

Hartlepool reverend Graeme Buttery, it was reported in the Guardian, said people in the North East voted leave due to collapse of traditional industry.

‘The collapse of traditional industry and its replacement with “lasses’ jobs” led many people to vote to leave the European Union, a Hartlepool clergyman has said…

…“Since we joined the European Union the shipyards have sunk, the coalmines have collapsed, the steel works, dare I mention it, have rusted and the chemical works have dissolved. The jobs that came were lasses’ jobs.

“And even they didn’t last because three or four years ago the phone calling company that had set up in Hartlepool decided to downsize and move to India,” said Buttery.’

At the beginning of the new Millennium the Labour Government set up Regional Development Agencies in England and one of their first tasks was to produce a FRESA, a Regional Framework for Employment Skills and Action. In the Northwest of England this was released in 2002.

At the time I made this observation to the NWDA on the FRESA

Comment on the North West Region’s Framework for Employment Skills and Action (FRESA) 29 August 2002

Looking at the FRESA, I feel I must make a comment arising from paragraph 24, page 9 copied here

“Job losses are expected to be dominated by males, while a large proportion of job gains will go to females. Some 60% of all job gains are expected to be part-time and the bulk of such jobs are expected to be in hotels and catering, business and other services. In terms of job losses the bulk are expected to come in elementary trades, process operatives, skilled metal and construction trades. Major gains are projected in caring and health, teaching and administrative and clerical occupations”

This seems to me to be a forecast of potential disaster in the Region. It will at best lead to a position where a large proportion of males feel excluded with probable social unrest.

Any gains are predicated on the assumption that service industries will grow and this is already under pressure with the possible transfer of call centre jobs to India (denied).

I strongly feel that the issue of National Service – or Service for the Nation, not primarily the traditional military service, must be addressed to provide constructive work for primarily males across the age range that will otherwise be idle.

This can be tied in to the work required to create sustainable development at home and abroad, which fits in with the thoughts expressed in my original submission to the Regional Strategy the-role-of-businessnf. That the Region and the UK cannot rely on classical economic solutions to prosper in this century.

After 150 years the World is coasting to the top of an oil curve but the view over the top is still obscured and we cannot see how steep the rest of the roller-coaster ride is
-whether the steepness of the useful energy curve will cause the car to come off the rails, or if we have the knowledge and skills to manage the transformational change required in societies and organisations to stay on them.
The aim of this blog is to bring together the knowledge and skills that will enable this tranformation. Your constructive comments are vital and welcome